Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Artery actually have a pretty sizeable back catalogue, so
it’s almost surprising that they’ve somehow ended up languishing in Obscurity
Corner.

These Sheffield chaps first
materialised in 1979 from an earlier incarnation with the slightly pretentious
moniker of “The”, before a name change and debuting with the single Mother Moon (Limited Edition Records,
1979), but at this point, although musically compelling, they’re still very
much in the wider post-punk school rather than anything distinctively Goth.

Where things start to get interesting though is their third
single “Afterwards / Into the Garden”
(Armageddon Records, 1981) and the Oceans EP (Red Flame, 1982) which both
contain solid slabs of early Goth Rock, despite the cover art of Oceans
challenging that of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry for the coveted crown of “Least Goth
Looking Ever”. Although Artery would deny having ever listened to Joy Division,
the influence here is difficult to overlook, and these early recordings do seem
to bear something resembling a head-on, if joyous, musical car crash between Joy Division and
Bauhaus before the resulting wreckage was rear-ended by Killing Joke.

Main man Mark Gouldthourpe had something of a penchant for
arty lyrics which occasionally gets the band in trouble, sometimes seeming
angst-ridden to the point of being fraught, with resultant unintentional
smirking on the listeners’ part. But not to mind – there are far worse thingsto encounter in the musical world, and if songs like “The Clown” and “Ghost of a
Small Tour Boat Captain” seem unlikely inclusions, others like “Into the Garden”, “Afterwards” and “The Slide”
are more than strong enough to make up for them.

After this though, things would bizarrely mutate, with
massive line up changes and the next album “One Afternoon in a Hot Air Balloon”
(Red Flame, 1983) largely consisting of of keyboard adventures in the vein
of plinky-plonky, honky-tonky and
indeed, wonky-donkey. To borrow a phrase of my mother’s; it was all “just a bittwee”, which is a lot nicer than Martin Lilliker’s description “an absolute abomination” (Beats Working
for a Living: Sheffield Popular Music 1973-1984 (Juma, 2005)). Liner notes on
Artery, Into the Garden – An Artery Collection (Cherry Red, 2006) suggest that
the album was virtually a solo project for Gouldthorpe and attempts to tour the
new direction in Europe were apparently not well received. It’s probably not to
everyone’s taste, and if you happen to be a regular visitor to this blog,
chances are that it’s certainly not going to be to yours either.

The beast in question.

Perhaps the title should have been a warning.

Now never let us speak of this again.

Fortunately though, things improve again with The Second
Coming album (Golden Dawn, 1984) and harder and stronger 12” releases like A
Big Machine (Golden Dawn, 1984) displaying a new Birthday Party-lite
sensibility, not to mention a substantial improvement in cover art.

Afterwards (Pleasantly Surprised, 1985), a collection of
demos and live reordings followed, before Artery’s last bow, Number Four - Live
in Amsterdam
(Golden Dawn, 1985) and it was all over. Not that they went quietly though, with Artery
members re-emerging in varying roles in a wildly disparate array of bands
including Flight Commander, Death Trash, All About Eve, an early incarnation of
Right Said Fred, Treehouse, Pulp (as a youngster, Jarvis Cocker was apparently
mad about Artery), and most importantly to us here, keyboardist Simon Hinkler
would reincarnate himself as lead guitarist with the newly formed The Mission,
while Artery manager, Golden Dawn Records owner, and sometimes bass player Tony Perrin reappeared as The
Mission’s manager.

Meanwhile, hop forward to 2009 and under Mark Gouldthorpe’s
leadship, Artery have reformed, releasing the Standing Still EP (Phantom Power
Records, 2009) followed by the album Civilisation (Twinspeed Records, 2011).

Gosh, but don’t an awful lot of bands seem to be doing this at the moment?
Good luck to them.

Dear Mr Gouldthorpe, Actifed were wondering if you were

finished with their gas mask and could they possibly have it back please?

A Welcome and Introduction

Plunder the Tombs was started back in 2010 by way of looking back on a musical past that I felt in sore need of curation.

It was a strange and sad time when what passed for “Goth” in clubs seemed a pale imitator of what once was, following first a decade of cookie-cutter Sisters of the Nephilim clone bands and then another decade of industrial dance being palmed off to younger audiences as a type of faux goth. When on rare occasion DJs in “Goth” clubs did finally become brave enough to play something like Bauhaus it was not untypical to have the dance floor clear, and it became obvious that the memory, meaning and legacy of much that had gone before had been lost.

It’s probably safe to say that the boundaries of what was “Goth” were never clearly defined. An absolute blessing for those bands on the original scene before it had a name pinned to the donkey, but an outright curse for those who came later and found rules had been imposed to dictate that which was and that which was not acceptable. Worse still was to come in the 90s from a lazy and unquestioning media who simply assumed that anything that wore black and make up was by definition “Goth”, thus allowing all manner of pretenders licence, and maximising confusion as to what the term actually referred to.

This has gone on for way too long and its time is at an end. Neo Post-Punk bands now proliferate across Europe, old long dead Goth bands rise from their crypts in the UK, and new deathrock bands are breeding like rabbits up the west coast of America. It is time to reclaim our scene back from metal bands and ravers in disguise.

While the Plunder the Tombs of old focused on what had gone before, there are now far too many exciting new things to ignore. We roar back to life in a reboot, covering past , present and things yet to come.

Let us plunder the tombs….

About Me

A DJ throughout the 90s at numerous Goth night clubs in Perth including The Cell, Dominion and others he was probably far too drunk to remember, largely as a result of his preference to work for bar tabs over cash. Also helped found 6RTR fm's Goth & Industrial showcase Darkwings.
More recent projects include the currently dormant Descent - a small night dedicated to playing genuinely good Goth music both old and new in preference to packing the dance floor with songs everyone had heard 20 million times before. He currently runs a monthly show on Behind the Mirror on 6RTR fm which can be heard on Wednesdays at 11pm WST.
Rumour has it he once masterminded an ill-advised Goth fanzine "Small Pleasures" that in retrospect, he remains profoundly grateful never made it off his desk.